Freebie(s) of the week: The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has two free offerings this week. Let’s start with Free First Thursdays: From noon to 8 p.m. on Thursday, there’s free admission for adults who live in the nine-county Bay Area region. While it’s not technically required, it’s highly recommended to reserve at www.sfmoma.org/free-days/#first-thursdays. However, free admission does not include ticketed exhibits, which means there’s a charge to view the Ruth Asawa collection. Yet there still is much to see for free, including “photopainting” works of Japanese artist Kunie Sugiura; Singapore artist Samson Young’s otherworldly collection of paintings and sculptures, accompanied by a soundscape; and famed painter/sculptor/installation and performance artist Yayoi Kusama’s 2023 “Dreaming of Earth’s Sphericity, I Would Offer My Love.” Of particular interest to local photography lovers is the exhibit about Group f.64, a collective of Bay Area photographers (including Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham and Edward Weston) who, in the early 20th century, countered the burgeoning practice of “pictorialism,” which favored artistic compositions (including manipulated photographs) over works strictly rendered by a camera. The f.64 artists believed that their pure photographs could rival anything that pictorialists could manufacture—and they set out to prove it. The artists’ photos, their history, and ties to the Bay Area are covered in “Around Group f.64: Legacies and Counterhistories in Bay Area Photography.” On Thursday, a 6 p.m. panel discussion in the Wattis Theatre explores f.64 artists. Meanwhile, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, free Family Day events include games and stories as well as access to various exhibits (again, excluding Ruth Asawa). More information is at www.sfmoma.org/event/free-family-day-hometown-heroes. And for general information on the museum, go to www.sfmoma.org.
He is, he said: The Broadway touring show opening this week at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco bills itself as “the untold story” of Neil Diamond’s rise from a shy sensitive Brooklyn singer-songwriter to an international superstar. This is poppycock: Diamond’s story has been known around the world for some time. But that doesn’t mean that Diamond’s history and music aren’t tailor-made for the kind of jukebox musical that we’ve seen for the likes of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Carole King and others. His very popular song catalog includes “I am … I Said,” “Sweet Caroline,” “Cracklin’ Rosie,” “Song Sung Blue” and many, many more. It’s interesting that the show’s title, “A Beautiful Noise,” comes from Diamond’s 10th album, which was known as an attempt, helmed by the Band’s Robbie Robertson, to restore critical acclaim to a music career that had been growing more commercially oriented (read: cheesy). But Diamond’s career—kind of like Phil Collins’—has long been a mix of true talent and schmaltz. The man has written and sung some of the biggest hits in contemporary pop music history and has been heralded as a lyricist who captures the gamut of human emotion in phrases everyone can connect with. Then again, one of his biggest hits includes the line: “I am I said/to no one there/And no one heard at all/Not even the chair.” (Let’s not get into the fact that he starred in a remake of “The Jazz Singer” movie that retained the original title even though it has no jazz music!) That doesn’t mean we Neil Diamond fans love him any less, or aren’t beyond stoked to see “Beautiful Noise,” which is playing in San Francisco through June 22. Tickets are $75.47-$236.93 (subject to change) at broadwaysf.com.
Killer sex farce 2.0: The only musical comedy in the Bay Area to concern itself with frisky seniors, murder and a curious influencer has changed houses. It’s Min Kahng’s world premiere production “Happy Pleasant Valley: A Senior Sex Scandal Murder Mystery Musical.” The show is a co-production by Palo Alto’s TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, where it ran earlier this year, and Center Repertory Company, where it’s playing through June 29. To describe “Pleasant Valley” as having broad humor would be an understatement. There’s nothing quite like a comedy–be it on stage or on screen–that tromps all over its subject matter like an inebriated elephant, especially when the performers are in on the joke. “Pleasant Valley” pokes fun at pretty much every hot topic there is, these days: sex, cancel culture, the strange worship of influencers, ageism and more. It has a talented cast of comic actors and acclaimed and well-traveled director Jeffrey Lo. Performances are at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. Tickets are $66-$95. Go to www.centerrep.org.
A packed program: Two richly orchestrated tone poems by Richard Strauss about reprobate characters (one a mischievous miscreant and the other a total cad); a highly unusual final symphony by the great Finnish composer Jean Sibelius; and the San Francisco Symphony’s first commission from Berkeley-born composer Gabriela Smith comprise the program for the penultimate series of concerts Esa-Pekka Salonen is leading before his much-bemoaned departure as music director. Taking place at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday in Davies Hall, the concert opens with “Don Juan,” Strauss’ description of the amorous pursuits and ultimate death of the infamous libertine, and ends, appropriately enough, with “Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks,” which follows the titular prankster through multiple pranks leading to his vividly orchestrated death by hanging. Sibelius’ Symphony No. 7 intervenes, singular for reasons that include the fact that it is played through as a single movement, followed by Smith’s “Rewilding,” a work inspired by the young composer’s commitment to ecological restoration. Tickets, $49-$179, are available at sfsymphony.org.
Cue the castanets: For those who would appreciate a tour of Spain — a musical one, anyway—Symphony San Jose presents a perfect opportunity. On Saturday and Sunday, at 7:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. respectively, the orchestra, under the baton of conductor José Luis Gomez, opens its “España” season-finale concerts with a performance of Gabriela Lena Frank’s “Escaramuza.” That’s Spanish for “skirmish,” literally, but it is a term for a celebrated sport in which eight women in vibrant costumes ride sidesaddle at a gallop on horseback while performing elaborate maneuvers set to music. That’s potentially worth showing up for on its own, but Joaquin Rodrigo’s ineffably beautiful “Concierto de Aranjuez” follows, with Spanish guitarist Rafael Aguirre soloing. The remainder of the program is filled out by Ravel’s “Rapsodie Espagnole” and Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Capriccio Espagnole.” Find tickets, $35-$121.50, at symphonysanjose.org.
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